The US military apologised on Thursday for knocking down a Shi'ite Muslim flag in a Baghdad neighbourhood on Wednesday and sparking protests that left one Iraqi dead and four wounded. Lt Gen Ricardo Sanchez, commander of US ground troops here, also acknowledged that poorly marked traffic checkpoints set up hastily by US troops had led to Iraqi civilian deaths and promised a review.Sanchez’s statements reflected the US military’s continuing difficulty in balancing aggressive patrolling and public safety. ‘‘The conduct of our operations is to take into consideration the Iraqi culture and sensitivities, and we want to be precise in our application of combat power,’’ Sanchez said. ‘‘We are going to continue to be aggressive; we have to be aggressive. We’re fighting a low-intensity conflict here.’’In a news conference, Sanchez said military officials extended apologies to local leaders in Sadr City, a Shi'ite Muslim neighbourhood of Baghdad that until recently was called Saddam City, and that an investigation is ongoing.‘‘The commanders have gone in and said we’re not going to let this happen again,’’ Sanchez said. Later he added: ‘‘Our intention is not to alienate the Shia people.’’Sadr City takes its name from Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Sadiq Sadr, a revered Shi'ite cleric who was assassinated in 1999. On Thursday, clerics loyal to a faction led by the ayatollah’s son, 30-year-old Moqtada Sadr, said they had received a copy of a letter signed by Lt Col Christopher Hoffman, commander of the 2nd Squadron, 2nd Armoured Cavalry Regiment, who called the incident a mistake. ‘‘I am personally investigating the incident and will punish those that are responsible,’’ Hoffman said in the letter, which was dated Wednesday. (LAT-WP) ANTHONY SHADID Baghdad, August 15 THE US military helicopter flew low over Baghdad’s largest slum, about an hour before noon prayers. For a while, it hovered near a transmission tower. Then, Sheik Ahmed Zarjawi said, a US soldier tried to kick the black flag that fluttered atop it, inscribed in white letters with the name of one of Shi'ite Islam’s most revered figures. ‘‘How can we sleep at night when we see this?’’ he recalled asking. MEANWHILE: Clerics warn US; 2 GIs wounded BAGHDAD: Clerics from across the Muslim sectarian divide blasted the US occupation of Iraq in Friday prayers as guerrilla hit-and-run attacks in the centre of the country inflicted more American casualties. Two US soldiers and three Iraqi civilians were wounded when gunmen fired two rocket-propelled grenades at a small military convoy near the town of Balad, northeast of Baghdad. ‘‘The Iraqis were treated at the scene and released while the soldiers were (evacuated) to a field hospital and are in stable condition,’’ said Lieutenant-Colonel William MacDonald, spokesman for the 4th Infantry Division. ‘‘We have not yet captured the attackers.’’ US troops have detained 14 Iraqis in the past 24 hours and seized surface-to-air missiles, rockets, rocket-propelled grenades and mortars, MacDonald said. (Reuters) There followed a day of anger and fervour in a Shi'ite Muslim neighbourhood already on edge. Clashes erupted with an American patrol, killing one Iraqi and wounding at least three others. Demonstrators called for a day of reckoning with US troops who they said they no longer wanted to enter their neighbourhood. ‘‘When the Americans came, we welcomed them and received them,’’ said 20-year-old Jabbar Qassem. ‘‘But this is our faith. Why would they do this? Now we will allow no American to wander through here.’’ The US military said the flag was knocked over by gusts from the low-flying helicopter. Suggestions that anything was intentional are ‘‘bogus, totally untrue,’’ said Staff Sgt J.J. Johnson, a military spokesman. By nightfall, the damage was done, underscoring the divide of religion and culture that separates occupier and occupied. Even the most militant clerics such as Moqtada Sadr, a young firebrand whose faction enjoys broad popular support in poorer parts of Baghdad and Basra, have stopped short of a call to arms. Discontent over the pace of restoring basic services has echoed through Iraq, and shortages of gas and electricity unleashed two days of protests and violence over the weekend in Basra. It took no more than a possible miscalculation by a helicopter. Footage of the incident aired by news channel Al Arabiya showed a helicopter hovering for several seconds near the flag which bore an inscription of a ninth century descendant of the Prophet known as Mahdi. When US military vehicles later came down a main street, Johnson said, some in the crowd attacked them. Residents said US soldiers opened fire, the fatality was a 10-11-year-old boy. Johnson said four people were wounded. But doctors at the nearby Thawra Hospital put the figure at three. Thirty-year-old Ali Karim, standing amid a group of protestors, said: ‘‘We are warning them not to come inside here again.’’ Thumbing worry beads, Ali Naif interrupted. The warning, he said, wasn’t strong enough. ‘‘If we catch the Americans, we will slaughter them. Okay?’’ he said. Some US officials have been increasingly worried about the influence of Sadr, a cleric who has little religious standing but heads an organisation that enjoys support among the most disenfranchised in Shi'ite cities. Over the past month, he has railed against the US-appointed Iraqi Governing Council, calling it a tool of the occupation that should be dissolved. (LAT-WP)
